Heart Treasures

Advent has begun; for Christians that means we begin our preparation for the celebration of the birthday of Jesus Christ. It seems, however, that what really began this past weekend was the celebration of door busters; those “can’t beat” deals that draw people out of their homes in the wee hours of the morning, and even, this year, by midnight on Thanksgiving.

I have nothing against great deals, or even people finding great fun in shopping at those unseemly hours. Has this tradition begun, however, to take its toll? Has it begun to turn us into bargain monsters? Oh, it’s nothing new that we tend to put the gift giving and receiving on such a high tier that we get carried away from the subject of this holiday; the birthday of a King; His name being Jesus Christ.

This morning, watching the news, being broadcast with the excitement of a great event happening, I heard how we smashed records for the Black Friday shopping experience, and how anxiously we are waiting to hear if Cyber Monday is even bigger. Then I found myself watching something that I would find unbelievable if it weren’t getting to be a current event; people fist fighting over “a door buster.” People were throwing things out of their way to get to the “big” item, not caring if someone was hurt in the process. I wondered, “Would I even want that gift someone just had a fist fight to buy for me. I hope children did not see these incidents; what does that say about the spirit of giving? Think how sad it must have made Christ to see people hurting other people physically and verbally in order to get a good deal. “’Is this why I came?” He must ask.

My experience with giving and receiving gifts would have begun with my mother, a woman with very little money, but a heart as big as the world. She used catalogs for shopping, because we lived in a small town where there were no department stores. As I learned from her when I got older, she would begin to do her shopping months ahead, ordering one item at a time, as she could afford it. Because she was on a mother’s pension, she would have had to scrimp on something else to come up with the money for a catalog order. Vegetable soup made from the almost free bones at the grocery store would be one way of getting by. (Just last week I picked up one of those formerly free bones, and it was priced at $2.59.)

We kids pretty much took the fact that there would be gifts under the tree for granted, much as we do now, but when I got older and realized what my mother sacrificed in order to do so, I began to appreciate them more. I found myself saying this morning, “Mom, I’m glad you’re not here to see this; it’s not something we can be proud of.” “A big black eye is what we got, Mom.”

In contrast to this, I think about the couple serving refreshments after the church service yesterday; she had baked several kinds of breads to share with us. You know the old saying, “There’s nothin’ as lovin’ as something from the oven.” Someone might really have needed that gift yesterday; we just never know who we’re reaching. To me, that bread was a real “door buster deal.”

Or think about the phone call I received from a neighbor, asking if Don had raked up her leaves; she wanted to thank him. As it turns out, it was not Hubby, but someone had done it. It is not easy for this friend/neighbor to do the outdoor work anymore. What a gift!

Because they have been touched by cancer, two Colts Cheerleaders, having beautiful flowing hair, had it cut, raising $22,000 for cancer research. It was a bold move, and both of them were prettier than before, if that is possible. No punching, swearing, or belittling there; just a gift of love.

We can do a whole lot better on Black Friday; we’re better people than that. And I just bet a lot of people stepped aside for someone else, because that’s the kind of people we are. I also bet that there were a lot of “thank you, excuse me, I’m sorry, and that’s okay” kinds of words spoken, because that’s the kind of people we are.

So let’s put a steak on that black eye and heal it up, hoping that we think about how bad we looked this year, and will not follow suit on future Black Fridays.